Based on recent comments from Shigeru Miyamoto, it sounds like we can look forward to another Pikmin game in the future.
Last week, Miyamoto mentioned the Pikmin shorts and Pikmin 3 demo, which just released yesterday. He said that these types of campaigns “will lay the groundwork for the next iteration of ‘Pikmin’ in the future.”
Miyamoto stated:
If I am allowed to do a little bit of PR here, we released a series of short films called “Pikmin Short Movies” on October 25 at the Tokyo International Film Festival. If you have not seen it yet, I hope you will check out the information on the Internet. The short film is only about 20 minutes, but this is our very first animated movie that uses “Pikmin” as its theme. We’re planning to make this 3D movie available on Nintendo 3DS and make the HD version of the movie available on Wii U in the near future. At the same time, we have also prepared a demo version of “Pikmin 3” so anyone who hasn’t played Pikmin can experience its unique joy. Continually launching campaigns after the release of software will lay the groundwork for the next iteration of “Pikmin” in the future. And needless to say, we want it to be one of the motivations for potential consumers to purchase Wii U. We are making a variety of different efforts.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata opened up about what Nintendo’s plans are for smart devices during the company’s financial results briefing last week. We covered some of this a few days ago, such as the Mii-focused app. In any case, read on below for Iwata’s comments in full.
Basically, Nintendo’s utilization of smart devices means to “make a stronger bond with our consumers through the use of smart devices,” instead of to “do business directly on smart devices.” We are continuously considering what we should do and what we can do to achieve that goal. Although this is not directly related to the application (for smart devices) you are referring to, even now if you access Nintendo’s Japanese website from a smart device, it is not in a layout for smart devices. It is rather embarrassing that we are so behind on this compatibility, but we plan to optimize our Japanese website for smart devices within 2014. In addition, we opened a website called “Play Nintendo” in the U.S. this month that introduces Nintendo characters to children and their parents, assuming that many of them will access it from their smart devices. This website is available at play.nintendo.com (please use the newest browser), so please take a look if you are interested. This service is currently only available in the U.S., but Mr. Miyamoto and I would like to make this kind of service available on a global scale.
Nintendo isn’t planning on supporting its Quality of Life platform alone. President Satoru Iwata confirmed last week that there is an interest in partnerships. Nintendo may approach other companies, and companies may come to Nintendo with proposals.
Iwata said:
By using the term “platform” for our QOL business, we expressed, to some extent, that our QOL business will not be only between us and our consumers. Instead, we would like various partners to join us if they have some ideas to propose to our consumers. For those who have been watching Nintendo for a long time, it would appear quite unusual to clarify the core elements of our new business ideas at such an early stage as this, way before the actual service begins to operate and the actual products are shown. This time we dare to clarify that Nintendo is working on a new platform with “sleep” and “fatigue” as the themes, because it would be very beneficial to openly start talks with potential partners. There might be cases in which we approach other companies. Conversely, there might also be cases where, following our announcement, companies come to us and propose something using their techniques or something that they would be able to achieve. Nintendo will not implement this business alone. Today, I explained future services and the development of the business by referring to our way of thinking. We did so specifically this time because, considering future business development, it‘s advantageous for us to talk about it at this early stage.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata brought up the “Super Smash Bros. and Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire Same-Generation Hypothesis” at the company’s financial results briefing last week. Essentially, there is the thought that those who played Super Smash Bros. Melee and Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire back in the day will also be interested in Smash Bros. 3DS and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata commented on this further during the Q&A portion of the latest financial briefing and brought up another interesting topic as well. Next year, Nintendo will attempt to launch some sort of feature with Nintendo Network IDs involving “options tailored to individual consumers based on the fact that they’ve played game A and game B, and so the probability they’ll enjoy game C is very high.”
Continue on below for Iwata’s full comments!
One person who attended Nintendo’s financial results briefing last week said that the company has been releasing games at a slower pace. The same person also inquired about development costs and Nintendo’s plans for architectural integration of future home console and handheld video game hardware. There’s a ton to check out here, so head past the break for responses from Satoru Iwata and Genyo Takeda.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, senior managing director Genyo Takeda, and Shigeru Miyamoto had plenty to say about judging the future of technology at the Big N’s financial results briefing last week. There was also a great deal of discussion about cultivating younger staff, which will be necessary when some of the higher-ups – like Shigeru Miyamoto – retire.
Head past the break for all of the comments from Iwata, Takeda, and Miyamoto. There’s definitely a lot here!
Cloud technology is something that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has commented on the past, but he was asked to discuss the topic once more during the Q&A portion of the company’s financial results briefing last week.
In short, Nintendo isn’t planning on using the cloud and smart devices in direct relation to its video game business. There is, however, interest in using them in other ways. Nintendo is currently “moving ahead with a variety of preparations.”
Iwata’s full comments:
First, in regard to smart devices, the advantage of cloud servers is always being connected to consumers through the Internet. Thus, we can do many things with that connection. Another advantage the cloud offers is that the processing capacity of our servers can be readily increased or decreased in accordance with a rise or fall in consumers, enabling us to run cost-efficient operations. Of course, there are possibilities in the game business for utilizing these merits of smart devices and cloud services. On the other hand, as was previously said, our aim of utilizing smart devices is to create even stronger ties with our consumers. As I have stated before, we draw the line at using the cloud and smart devices to directly carry out our video game business. Therefore, if you are asking whether we plan to directly carry out our video game business using the cloud and smart devices as we will with QOL, the answer is, “No.” If the question is whether we are interested in utilizing them, naturally the answer is, “Yes.” We are actively considering utilizing smart devices to create ties with our consumers and use those ties in the world of video games, as well as examining how we can deepen consumers’ interest in video games to increase the number of participants in our platforms. At present, we are moving ahead with a variety of preparations.
One investor brought up an interesting point about QOL during Nintendo’s most recent financial results briefing. Nintendo will need to find ways to keep users engaged with the product, otherwise the business may not be successful in the long term, and it may not sell in the short term.
Satoru Iwata believes Nintendo will be able to tackle these potential issues in various ways. First, users won’t need to wear any device, and they’ll simply need to sleep in order for it to function. There are also plans to greatly lower the hurdle for measurements. And finally, Nintendo wants to “skillfully combine our video game know-how with the smart device notification functions that are already used in daily life.”
We received a translation of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s most comments about region-locking last week. Nintendo has now gone ahead and shared an official translation from its financial results briefing Q&A, so you can find the official translation below.
There have been various conditions at play in the game business, such as a history of localization taking an extremely long time, a variety of marketing constraints and circumstances in each country, and the fact that the license needed to sell games have not always been granted globally. In a sense, the region-lock has existed more for reasons having to do with the seller than the consumers. That has been the situation throughout the history of video game systems, and as for what should be done going forward, there may be advantages for the consumers and also for us if they were unlocked. Conversely, unlocking them would mean having to resolve different issues that would subsequently arise. While we have not decided whether we will unlock them or not, we do recognize that it is an issue that needs to be considered in the future.
We received a bit more information about Nintendo’s “Quality of Life” plans last week. However, there’s still quite a lot of information shrouded in mystery – such as what Nintendo’s plans are when it comes to pricing.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata didn’t share too many details on this front at the company’s financial briefing last week, but during the Q&A, he hinted at a subscription-based model. Iwata also commented on how QOL “has the potential for Nintendo to create a significantly large market that no one has ever set foot in”.
As usual, continue on below for Iwata’s full comments.
